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Course: Tzanck Smear of Ulcerated Plaques

CME Credits: 1.00

Released: 2023-10-25

A man in his 30s with AIDS presented with acute-onset painful scattered umbilicated papulopustules and ovoid ulcerated plaques with elevated, pink borders on the face, trunk, and extremities (, A). The patient also had a new-onset cough but was afebrile and denied other systemic symptoms. Due to his significant immunocompromise, the clinical presentation was highly suspicious for infection. For rapid bedside differentiation of multiple infectious etiologies, a Tzanck smear was performed by scraping the base of an ulcerated lesion and inner aspect of a pseudopustule and scraping its base with a #15 blade. These contents were placed on a glass slide, fixed, and stained with Wright-Giemsa and subsequently Papanicolaou staining to further characterize the changes seen.


Educational Objective
Based on this clinical scenario and the accompanying image, understand how to arrive at a correct diagnosis.


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